‘Deadstream’ Review: A Hectic Haunted House Comedy For the YouTube Era
variety.comDennis Harvey Film CriticWhen “The Blair Witch Project” got the found-footage horror subgenre properly started in 1999, it was already asking for trouble that the protagonists were film students pointing their cameras where they shouldn’t.
These days, prospective victims in such movies are likely to make us feel they deserve their fate by being professional self-promoters with such widely despised job titles as “influencer,” “YouTube personality” or “reality TV star.” Sharp objects may also be involved, but in horror cinema, few things prove more reliably fatal than narcissism.So we know the goose of bearded thirtysomething Shawn Ruddy (Joseph Winter) is cooked right away in “Deadstream,” because he’s introduced in a bombastic montage of clips from the streaming series of which he’s the star and entire crew.
He self-identifies as “the world’s biggest wuss — facing my fears one dumb-ass challenge at a time.” The latest such fear: a solo overnight stay at “the most haunted house in the United States.” One can safely guess that this “Wrath of Shawn” episode will probably be his last.
A feature debut for married multihyphenates Vanessa and Joseph Winter following several shorts, “Deadstream” is a fun comedy-horror ride both driven and limited by the noxious onscreen character of its co-director/writer/producer/editor.
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